THE VILLAGES — A rubber stamping session seemed more like a game of musical chairs as women switched seats to use different stamps and inks.

The rubber stamping and card making group known as Stamping at the Landing focused its efforts on embossing Wednesday morning at Hibiscus Center.

Carolyn Morris, who leads Stamping at the Landing, described embossing as "making the image rise from the paper." Embossing may be achieved using either powder or a stylus; Morris chose to have the group work with powder.

When embossing powder is sprinkled onto the sticky stamped ink, however, the image becomes clear. An electric dryer made specifically for crafts dries the ink and sets the powder.

The women stampers moved from their own chairs to others as they progressed through the embossing and enhancing process, sharing colored pencils and a novel tool called a blending pen. The blending pen caused applied colored pencil to take on the appearance of watercolor paint.

Beautifying a stamped image and turning it into a card may sound difficult, but it is relatively easy to do. The initial challenge lies in getting the stamping technique right.

"You have to learn to use the stamp straight up and down so you're not rocking it," Morris said, noting that the uneven distribution of ink caused by rocking results in a distorted image.

Morris prefers to keep her designs simple. Even so, Stamping at the Landing members are satisfied and impressed with the cards they have hand-made together. Baumruk said she would like to be that creative when stamping at home.

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